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SoC Newsletter November 2008

NEWSLETTERNovember 2008Registered Charity No. 326285

CONTENTSFROM THE CHAIR

Chair’s Message 1

2008 Summer School 4

Articles & Reviews 33

Cartographic Ramblings 38

News 40

Events 42

End Note 43

AGM Minutes 44

Well, I am surviving in the new job situation, helped by the agree-ment to work from home two days a week. Almost no cartography in the JD, but the ability to do some research by agreement with my manager. The first fruits of this are a research project with Pro-fessor Ifan Shepherd from our Business School (whom some may remember performing memorably “inside the box” at a previous Summer School).This has already started - having had an enjoy-able day researching data in the BL Map Room last week. Suffice it to say it will involve delving into early OS production and data collection, and comparing this to advances in technology and so-ciological changes that have produced such a different data col-lection landscape nowadays.

The Summer School in Aberdeen was excellent. Thanks to Mike Wood, Lawrie McLean and their colleagues for working tirelessly on your behalf to set up a memorable conference. Some of the presentations are now on the website, and some will be appearing in the forthcoming SoC Bulletin, which Alex Kent is currently edit-ing. At the conference we acknowledged the end of Mike Wood’s reign as President by awarding him the third Society Award. I would like to repeat here the words I said at the time that the presentation was made at the annual dinner, but as it was ad-libbed I really have no idea what they were!

As usual your committee have been working behind the scenes during the last few months. For myself there has been a meeting of the UKGeoForum to attend at the Royal Institute of Navigation. There is now an SoC page on the UKGeoForum website, which will give us a further publicity outlet. I took the opportunity of getting some of the existing publicity sheets reprinted as there was an of-fer to publicise UKGeoForum members’ activities at the forthcom-ing RIN conference. Whilst I was about it some more were given to the Hydrographic Society UK (to display at their conference in Liverpool), and also some to be displayed at the OpenStreetMap

NEWSLETTER CONTRIBUTIONS

Welcome to the November issue of the SoC Newsletter. The Newsletter is published three times a year and designed for digital distribution via the Society’s website. Hard copy versions of the Newsletter are available on request.

Contributions to the newsletter are welcomed from all our readers. Please email all copy and photographs [email protected]

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stand at the Linux London Expo. We are also continuing the proc-ess of converting old SoC Bulletins into PDF format so that they can be made available via the SoC website, through a new member’s portal. Other committee colleagues have been working on setting up next year’s summer school, improving the website, finding out what members want, and improving our publicity materials.

Further encompassing new technologies - a Facebook site for the Society of Cartographers was launched during the Aberdeen conference, following some traditional evening networking. This already has a bunch of members and there are loads of photos from Aberdeen viewable there. You are encouraged to use this as a means of informally networking with fellow cartographers. Get to it by going into Facebook and typing Society of Cartographers in the search window, and then register. Look forward to facing you!

As Chair I have fielded the usual array of information requests. Two interesting ones were on how to measure areas on a map, and any information I had on a cartographer called Thomas Dibble (none, despite fairly extensive [Google] research). Another was a specific question on ‘the famous cartographer Philippe Buache’ which I forwarded to carto-soc. A TV programme researcher had heard (via the www) of my involvement in the Disney/Edge of the World promo, and wanted to know where else apart from Kiribati I could recommend that they could send a family for a reality TV programme where they would be on an island as remote as pos-sible from civilisation. My suggestion of Bouvet was well received, but my offer to go and research the location for them seemed to fall on deaf ears.

During his presentation at Aberdeen SoC President Danny Dorling commented on a research project he is supervising at Sheffield on flow maps, and asked for contributions of examples from the del-egates. I have stumbled across some examples which I have for-warded, and have an eye out for more, and will watch this project with interest. Danny appeared with Mike Wood on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme when the Atlas of the Real World was launched last month, giving good insights into the mapping techniques in-volved [note to both: drop SoC in to the piece somewhere next time – or was it edited out!]. Mike Shand also fielded a request from Radio 4’s iPM asking for a contact for some research into a topic (mapping the credit crunch – which used CASA’s GmapCreator – see review elsewhere in this Newsletter). He gave them Danny, Mike Wood, his and my contact details, but I haven’t heard any more about this one. I do see that this week’s iPM programme will Steve Chilton

River Don, Aberdeen

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announce the winner of the UK government’s Show Us A Better Way competition – the finalists of which all include a map/spatial element (http://www.freeourdata.org.uk/blog/?p=252).

Today I have done my usual trawl through the most illuminating geoblogs in my bookmarks, and have noted the last few days’ list-ings being dominated by comments on the range of maps that the US presidential elections have spawned. Possibly, OK it is just a guess, this is the most mapped single event in history. If you are interested in maps in the media the Maphawk blog is a good place to start (http://maphawk.blogspot.com/). There was a blog on Prof Mark Newman (co-author with Danny Dorling of the Atlas of the Real World) applying the worldmapper cartogram technique to the US election results; one on Google Streetview being released of main Spanish cities (fascinatingly, on the day I returned from visiting my son who is at Seville University, and thus able to re-live some of the walkabouts we did); and an interesting post from Rich-ard Treves on GIS in UK Teaching (I know only too well how scary many teachers find the whole GIS thing).

Finally, thanks to Rosie Duncan for getting another great Newslet-ter together, and to all contributors who responded to the call to report on the Aberdeen Summer School. I have counted 15 con-tributors to the reports on the summer school which is excellent. Please take the opportunity to contribute to the new “ramblings” section. That way I needn’t write so much. Or maybe I will finally succumb to my oft thought idea of becoming a blogger - then you won’t be subjected to so much drivel from me in the newsletters! If you have something to submit to the next issue please do so, the more the better.

Steve ChiltonSoC Chair

STOP PRESS

The situation with regard to OS data licensing and the “Show us a better way” winners has escalated, but no time to analyse that here - just to note the future of OS’s Trading Fund status was mentioned in the chancellor’s Pre-Budget Report (tip: read the blogs).

Future Summer School Venues

Dates for your diary

2009To be confirmed

20�0Manchester

20��Plymouth

Would you like to host a conference?If so, please contact

Steve Chilton Email:

[email protected]

Quiz Winners

. . . & Losers!

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SUMMER SCHOOL REPORT

UNIVERSITY OF ABERDEEN1 - 4 September 2008

Opening and welcomeWe were welcomed to the University of Aberdeen by Head of Geosciences David Macdonald who also stepped up and gave the first paper.

SESSION 1: ABERDEEN CITY AND REGION

Aberdeen and oilDavid Macdonald’s presentation entitled ‘Recent Developments in Resource Mapping’ revealed that, as a geologist, ‘recent’ in his dictionary included anything within the Holocene - the last 11,500 years. So he started with a look at the Turin Papyrus, produced in Egypt around 1150BC, the purpose of which appears to have been to map the location of a stone quarry. Resembling a strip map, it follows the route along wadis to the quarry - passing a gold mine on the way! It can be matched to modern mapping and the present day position of the old quarry (and goldmine) identified.

He then brought us forward several millennia as he showed some seismic survey imagery from deep below the sea bed which clearly showed ancient drainage patterns. Sand can often be a reservoir for oil deposits and was frequently transported along these old channels, so it can provide a useful clue in the search for oil. These images can be combined and 3D models produced that can help with the positioning of exploratory wells.

A brief history of Old Aberdeen Chris Croly (Aberdeen City Council’s Archaeological Unit) I was unaware that in fact there was an ‘old’ and ‘new’, but apparently New Aberdeen was a royal borough which eventually swallowed up its smaller namesake. The development of Old Aberdeen really began at the north end of the town with the building of St Machar’s Cathedral in the 12th century. Leading south from the cathedral area was - and still is - the main street called the Chanonry. Indeed, we followed part of this street walking between our accommodation and lectures: history brought to life! This leads on to the site of the old university of Kings College, founded to promote the study of medicine, of which only the chapel remains. The New Aberdeen also had its own University (Marischal College) and in 1861 they merged to form the University of Aberdeen. Continuing south brings you to the mercantile quarter of the old town. Incidentally,

SUMMER SCHOOL

The following pages contain a series of reports from the 44th Summer School which was held at the University of Aberdeen at the beginning of September. They aim to give the readers who were unable to attend a flavour of the presentations and workshops.The full programme and abstracts from the cartographic sessions can be found at the society website and complete versions of some of the papers will appear in the next edition of Society’s Bulletin.

Market Cross, Aberdeen

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the origin of the name Aberdeen is probably (but not definitively) from ‘Aber’ (mouth of) and ‘Don’ (the river flowing through it).

The Land Reform Act, the Code and the Core Path PlanBob Reid is convener of the National Access Forum (NAF). This group advises the Scottish Government on issues regarding access to the countryside. The Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003 gave right of foot access to most land and inland waterways in Scotland. Prompted by rising obesity rates and parental concern over children’s safety when out and about, particularly with regard to traffic, the NAF is striving to help local authorities encourage exercise by putting footpaths back on the map - literally. Whilst the study of air photos suggest that footpaths seem to exist on the ground, they can be fragmented and there is often no record of them on OS maps. Each local authority in Scotland now has to produce a footpath plan to remedy this and, what is more, once the path is included by the OS it becomes a legal right of way, unlike in England and Wales. Now that’s a step in the right direction.

Tim Absalom

SESSION 2: MAPS AND CHANGING COASTLINES

Coastal change in the Maldives Sue Dawson (Aberdeen Institute for Coastal Sciences and Management) The debate in the media and scientific media about global warming and sea level rise is constantly ongoing. People are concerned about the immediate and long term future. Sue’s collaborative research is based on the Maldives, islands which are no more than one and a half metres above sea level.The research aims to reconstruct sea levels for the recent past and further back to the Holocene. This is being achieved by comprehensively analysing all indicators linked with sea level rise on small and large scale models. Evidence has been gathered for the geomorphology of the islands, historical and recent records, sea level charts from between 1990 – 2002, tide gauge records (which show very little change in this time) and local evidence on the ground showing

An island, Maldives

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current and recent sea levels having a very small tidal range.

Biological indicators such as coral have been radio-carbon dated in situ below the water and show evidence of short-lived higher sea levels. Cores have been taken to analyse the sedimentological, geological and biological indicators to help provide dates. Fishermen’s records of changing boat routes also provide evidence. Dives, into caves, were undertaken to provide more dating sources. Solar patterns have been taken into account.

Very detailed sea level curves can be produced from all this evidence. It shows that the sea level oscillates. The curves can be translated back by using evidence from older sites and this also shows that the sea level oscillates. The IPCC models are way above the trends which have been researched over the last 300 years. Sea level is promoted as the greatest threat to the Maldives, whereas the research helps to show that storms are actually a greater threat.

The Maldives are only 2500km/3 hours away from the Boxing Day earthquake and were severely affected. Only 9 islands of the 1,192 had no flooding. Studies of the sediment damage helped demonstrate patterns to look for tsunamis of the past.

NASA, CNES, and IPCC predict the loss of the Maldives in 50 -100 years. The Inqua commission on sea level changes and coastal evolution, through this research, find no traces of any on-going sea level rise.

Jenny Kynaston

Relative sea level changes around Scotland’s coastline Alastair Dawson (Aberdeen Institute for Coastal Science and Management) Alastair reassured us that reports of Edinburgh Castle being drowned are exaggerated, however he deemed sea level change to be a very complex subject. Patterns of sea level change are still being influenced by events that took place 15,000 years ago.

Everything is relative; he spoke about eustacy (volume of water) and isostacy (balance). 20,000 years ago sea level was 120m below today’s level. 15,000 years ago the melt began and by 11,000 all the ice was gone. Sea level has been rising ever since the Ice Age and is now levelling out; so he posed the question ‘Is it melting ice or thermal expansion causing sea levels to rise?’ Ice is heavy and pressed down upon the crust or lithosphere, and the surrounding land rose up as the ice retreated. The Ice Age was a

The ocean affects climate through its huge capacity of

water and heat . . .the upper 3 metres of the ocean has

the same amount of heat as the entire

atmosphere

Bar visit!

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very dry period. After the Ice Age the earth is slowly bouncing back into place faster then the rising sea level. In the area of the Wallace Monument in Stirlingshire there are silts laid down 3,500 - 6,000 years ago whilst land uplift was minimal in the Outer Hebrides and land areas were drowned. Land is rising by 1mm per year across Scotland with very gradual rise of MSL in Aberdeen.

To conclude Alastair explained that thermal expansion is the key driver of sea level not the result of human activity and it is necessary to look at the long term changes which are very, very slow and not short term fluctuations.

Terrain modelling and changing beach morphology Cristina Gomez (Scottish Natural Heritage project) Cristina has been assessing the recent rates of, and causes of, change in Scotland’s beaches and dunes. She is looking at uninhabited areas using aerial photography and current digital maps, and making comparisons with OS maps from the 1800s using ground control points. However it is not easy in coastal areas, especially where there are dunes constantly evolving, to obtain a complete set of ground control points. Interpretation must be done with caution and, as with the previous speaker, it is the long term trends that tell the real story. A coast is a dynamic environment, dunes and beaches are always on the move and the availability of sediment and weather events all combine to challenge this type of research project. Rosie Duncan

Quantities of relative sea level

rise (plus lowering) since AD 1995 due

to effects of thermal expansion

(or thermal shrinkage?)

Coastal sand dunes,North West Scotland

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SESSION 3: 3D CHALLENGES: MOUNTAINS AND OIL EXPLORATION

This session, chaired by Alan Collinson, was one of the most anticipated and certainly one of the best, bringing together Aaron Lawton, Tom Patterson with David Schobesberger, and Mark Douglas to present a range of examples of 3D mapping from a variety of real-world situations – I don’t think the delegates ever doubted that they would be in for a real treat.

New panoramas of the Cairngorms Aaron Lawton (Designer, Aaron Lawton Associates)Creating a map to present the magnificent landscape of the UK’s largest National Park to visitors in a meaningful way is no mean feat and Aaron Lawton, explained how the Cairngorms National Park Authority were inspired by the work of Heinrich Berann for its heritage interpretation project. Heinz Vielkind, arguably the greatest living 3D map panorama artist and student of Berann, was commissioned by the Park Authority to capture the character of the Cairngorms in five panoramas. Aaron Lawton gave an excellent description of the steps involved and the various challenges met along the way; one being the ‘toning down’ of the Alpine-inspired landscapes of the prototypes in order to convey the gentle splendour of the Scottish Highlands.

Evaluating the effectiveness of 2D versus �D trailhead maps Tom Patterson (Cartographer, US National Parks Service) David Schobesberger (Unversity of Vienna). Moving across the Atlantic, Tom Patterson explained with David Schobesberger an evaluation of how effective 2D and 3D trailhead maps were in a user study conducted at Zion National Park, Utah.

Samples of landscape in-terpretation given to users

to discover their preferred representation

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This was another excellent presentation, full of superb images and examples, demonstrating how people approached the two varieties of map and which was better – 2D or 3D – at imprinting itself as a mental map and communicating graphical information more effectively. The speakers showed how hikers and ‘non-experts’ preferred 3D maps and that these were better in allowing users to find their positions accurately, but also how similarly users performed when comparing the two methods of representation. �D visualisation in oil exploration Mark Douglas (Senior Geologist, Schlumberger Information Systems) Finally, Mark Douglas, introduced us to the cutting edge of 3D mapping in the oil and gas business, particularly the geological aspects of the industry. This was a fascinating presentation in which the possibilities of 3D GIS were very much on show – much to the amazement of the delegates. The ability to display 2D maps with 3D seismic and well information using a cartographically-dependent interface provided a stunning demonstration of the power of maps to present complex spatial relationships in an approachable and manageable way.

What I found especially interesting in all three of these presentations was just how vital good cartographic design is in each of these situations, and how the judgment of the cartographer continues to play a special role in society far outside the realms of ‘traditional’ 2D mapping.

Alex Kent

SESSION 4: NEW MAPPINGNEW MAPPING

Micro mapping for kayakers Nick Tasker (Commercial Communictions Manager, UK Hydrographic Office)Under the enticing blanket heading of New Mapping, Session 4 opened with Nick Tasker from the UK Hydrographic Office speaking on the subject of Micro mapping for kayakers. As with my own paper on Musical Maps presented at last year’s summer school, this paper represented a fusion of the speaker’s professional and leisure interests. With his own inimitable style of humour blended with in-depth knowledge of the subject, Nick examined the technology, old and new, related to this little-explored area of mapping. Along the way he mused on the problems kayakers could experience when using PDAs, including user environment, ergonomics, ease of use while paddling, and the limitations of Admiralty Leisure,UKHO

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scale and resultant problems of situational awareness. Highlighting the paucity of suitable and bespoke maps available for the three groups of kayakers (touring, white water and sea), illustrated with poor examples of the genre and amusing anecdotal stories, we slalomed our way though the obstacles faced by those attempting to meet the navigational and safety needs of the kayaker.

The problems tidal currents pose for sea kayakers and the fact that neither the Ordnance Survey nor the UKHO map non-tidal rivers effectively for kayakers were just two of the instances mentioned. Nick highlighted the usefulness of features such as colour coded river grading to show grades of rapid and speed of flow, and the inherent problems of variations caused by the time of year, eg. when a river is in flood. This led on to a look at a wiki project using Openstreetmap data and an illustration of the sort of iconography that could be developed and the need for maps where information displayed relating to rivers is prioritized over road data.

Nick rounded off his very entertaining and informative presentation with a look at some “tough charts”, A3 portfolios of 20 charts on durable, waterproof materials which represent a robust but manageable solution for the average kayaker. It is very apparent that this is a difficult environment to map well, but one with a growing market and plenty of scope for new design.

Special mapping systems for wheelchair users Iain Wright (Research student, University of Aberdeen) Iain led us through a fascinating account of his research into the mapping needs of the 1.2 million wheelchair and 100,000 mobility scooter users in the UK. Gradients obviously pose a particular problem for this group and Iain showed us how these have been shown on a variety of mobility maps before proceeding to show the audience the results of his own experiments. He emphasised the importance of not only showing gradients, but also their direction. He explained his methods of calculating energy expenditure/effort required in pushing a wheelchair up differing gradients.

Part of Iain’s research involved usability testing at the Mobility Roadshow – here we had a little diversion into the huge range of vehicles available to provide people with access to as many environments as possible.

It was fascinating for the uninitiated like myself to hear mobility scooters described as the “BMW” or “4x4” of this mode of transport. As part of Iain’s usability testing for his mobility map ideas,

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wheelchair users were given a digitised map of Edinburgh and asked to make a routing choice between various points. Eventually it is hoped that a transferable system for producing high quality mobility maps will be available. As with the previous speaker, the paper was presented with clarity and enthusiasm for the subject and touched the imagination and interest of the audience.

Building the global map: filling the gaps Ed Parsons (Geospatial Technologist with Google)Ed rounded off the session with an update on new developments and products. We were given a glimpse of how Google is going about its mission to make the world’s information more accessible, with particular reference to organising material “geographically”.

The speaker used the example of digital photography, geo-locating images using software such as Picasa which can be downloaded free from the Google website. Of most interest, and maybe a little concern, was the introduction to Google Map Maker. Using video clips showing the application of the product in India, we could observe the results of how remote villages and towns are being mapped by members of the public. The potential is obvious; in particular, areas of the world which have not been mapped due to security reasons are now being mapped by ordinary users using Google tools, the aim being to build a consistent and complete, detailed global map.

In a lively question and answer session that followed several concerns seemed to relate to ensuring the accuracy of the data being supplied. We were assured that checks for accuracy and consistency in the data were built into the system where possible. I note from visiting the Map Maker tool homepage that it contains the following note which goes some way to supporting this assurance: “To ensure high quality data, we allow map editing only when you are zoomed in really close, and some of your contributions may be moderated. We also recommend that you switch to hybrid mode to add/edit features precisely.”

It will be interesting to follow the progress of this ambitious venture and also to carry out a detailed sampling of the end product. One thing is certain, this powerful map-making tool is out there and in widespread use; so should the professional cartographers be getting involved in it too?

Brian Rogers

A container ship coming into Aberdeen

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SESSION 5: NEW MAPPINGNEW MAPPING

OSM cycle maps Andy Allan (Technical Lead, CloudMade, London) Andy spoke about the Open Street Map approach to making a cycle map. Cloud Made is a company set up by OSM to explore commercial opportunities using OSM data.

Andy described how his hobby had become rather more than a pastime with his exploitation of OSM’s now established crowd-based data collection methods to produce a dataset suitable for use by cyclists. Andy created the code necessary to display OSM data on a GPS unit to allow both cyclists and pedestrians to plan routes. Amazingly, the claimed annual costs for this resource are less than £50 a year!

Andy chose examples of cycle mapping from the Netherlands to illustrate techniques for displaying both national and regional cycle networks, with the cycle route being the most dominant feature to aid route planning. Cloud Made’s cycle map is delivered to users by bringing together raster and vector data using Mapnik software before tiles are “served” up to the user’s laptop or handheld computer. The tiles can then be cached for other users’ future reference. One particularly successful feature is the use of transparency to highlight the cycle routes.

Registering as one of OSM’s mappers is easy through its website and the software allows users to upload GPS tracks and to edit, annotate and add features onto the dataset. OSM’s future seems secure with more than 1000 volunteers a day contributing data and editing the database through its website which can be found at www.opencyclemap.org.

Interactive thematic mapping software with dynamically-linked charts and tables for the Web - The InstantAtlas solutionJohn Bartholomew (Geowise, Edinburgh) If a picture is worth a thousand words then the future for report writers may be in doubt if InstantAtlas from Geowise takes off in organisations from local authorities, health trusts, police and fire authorities to private sector companies like banks, security companies and consultancies.

According to its own promotional material, “InstantAtlas improves the visual communication of location-based statistical data,

www.opencyclemap.org

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enables information analysts and GIS professionals to create highly-interactive web solutions that combine statistics and GIS data to improve data visualization, enhance communication, and engage people in more informed decision making.”

Geowise’s John Bartholomew described the data visualisation and presentation tools of InstantAtlas and how they can be used to quickly present graphically rich reports using data rendered from a spreadsheet and combined with boundary shape file information. These map and graph-based images are brought together to produce presentation-quality displays on a website that can be styled to match any corporate look.

A massive amount of data exist, particularly in the medical sector, but so far, there has not been available a low cost, simple to use solution that can be adapted easily to display data quickly and efficiently using a number of graphical techniques.

A series of templates supplied with the product allow the user to design a report using maps, time series and meta-data that is fully customisable for both layout and design. The result is a fully interactive presentation that automatically highlights the key points the writer wants to emphasise.

An Internet journey planner for cyclists Tom Burslem (CycleCity Guides) Cycling is one of the biggest growth stories in transport across Britain, as millions of cycle journeys are made for reasons of health, leisure, shopping, school runs, commuting and tourism. Cycling in London is up massively since the introduction of the congestion charge, the 12,000 mile National Cycle Network has seen over 350 trips in 2007 alone, and at a time of increasing fuel costs more and more people are attracted by the promise of almost zero cost travel - infinity miles per gallon anyone?

There has, understandably, been a huge growth in the number and variety of mapping products available to this growing number of cyclists, whether in the form of stand-alone maps or as part of guide books. While many would argue this could only be a good thing, the increase does throw up some interesting challenges, not least how we can improve the standardisation of symbols used on cycle maps from around the country. With each mapping project developing independently of others, the involvement of cyclists in helping to guide cartographers’ thinking would seem to be a sensible way forward. Fortunately, a way forward does seem to

www.cyclecityguides.co.uk

For more on InstantAtlas from Geowise, visit

www.instantatlas.com

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be emerging. With guidance for the production of walking maps already available through the Department of Transport and the ongoing development of the National Cycling Strategy, it is to be hoped that mapping in the cycling world will also benefit in due course.

Tom Burslem of Cycle City Guides used part of this session to provide information about their instant journey planner for cyclists, a project aimed at helping to develop cycling in the UK. He spoke of the government initiative ‘Transport Direct’ which currently provides information for travellers about car journeys and public transport routes, but doesn’t yet provide an online tool for cyclists wishing to plan a journey (there is a helpful CO2 emissions calculator though, pretty low for cyclists I’d expect).

While there is no national solution yet through Transport Direct, some cities in the UK have embraced cyclists’ needs and there are good examples in Cambridge, London and Brighton, some of which also have options for users to select routes by “quietness”.

Tom went on to explain how Cycle City Guides use cartographic and attribute data from the integrated transport network and the ITN road layer from OS MasterMap to customise map data for use on a cycle map. Additional data correction and editing is carried out using MapInfo and Map X technology and cycle specific attributes such as traffic calming features can be added using a pocket PC with a GPS receiver in the field.

Future uses of Cycle City Guide data have been identified within local authorities wishing to publicise the extent of their cycle-friendly routes and for the possibility of developing a Sat-Nav for cyclists. Tom used examples from the Tyne and Wear cycle guide, a series of

commonly designed sheets covering five north east local authorities which are home to more than 1 million people (and quite a few cyclists no doubt).

Gary Haley

Cycle route!

Sample of City Cycle mapping

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SESSION 6: MEMBERS

Steve Chilton – Aberdeen OnlineThe members’ session got off to a swiftly paced start with a lighthearted critical overview of maps of Aberdeenshire. Steve led the show using a Google search to locate the Aberdeen maps and highlighting some good and bad points. We were taken through a whistle stop tour of maps ranging from static, fit-for-purpose maps hosted by the local council, through multi-map links, moments of flashing animation on the Monymusk Arts Trust map, some fairly poor scans, a good example in the North East Scotland Breeding Bird Atlas and even a cross stitch map. Steve highlighted effectively the huge range of maps available for Aberdeen and how search engines such as Google can provide the user with a diverse and slightly unusual set of information to consider.

John Tullis – 3D maps for panoramaJohn introduced his area of study in panoramic mapping on mobile phones so that a user can identify where they are and navigate by holding up their mobile and matching what they see in the landscape to the panoramic view on screen. This uses Viewranger technology. The GPS in the phone can locate the user accurately and ensure the image they see on-screen represents the real world in front of them.His study involves further investigations into panoramic mapping and how it can be easily read on a phone, for example, how the render on the phone image loses the exaggerated shape of real features and makes it harder for the user to determine what they are looking at. Consideration is also being given to the visualisation of the number and prominence of peaks in a view, the slope angles, visibility and how far can be seen. John’s work is ongoing and he welcomes comments or input towards his sudy.

Alan Collinson – Land use data in atlas maps and a brief discussion on the cartographic professionAlan discussed the cartographic representation of land use data in atlas maps, specifically making the map look real for people to interpret it more easily. For example, by using actual images of a specific tree type instead of a symbol which the user has to refer to a key to understand. He discussed the problems of height, highlighting difficulties with hill shading and digital elevation models and suggested this background information should be introduced so it is subliminal perhaps by using a white to white scale with shades inbetween and the use of a second light source to soften the shadows.

Alan’s work can be seen at:

www.geonatural.co.uk.

Cross Stitch map of Aberdeenshire

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In a swift-paced discussion Alan raised his thoughts about the cartographic profession. He raised a host of questions - Is the profession in decline? If there were no cartographers would it make a difference? If there is something that shows that cartographers do make a difference – what is it? How can it be defined? Is it quantifiable? Should the BCS and SoC join to represent the UK cartographic trade as a technical profession?Alan raised the analogy of creating a piece of furniture to describe the place of a cartographer – a handyman would be used to get the job done and the piece to be built, a joiner would be hired to add some finesse to the piece in its creation, but a cabinet maker would create a piece to become a gift.Pressure of time cut the chain of thought short; however this discussion is sure to continue.

Jenny Kynaston

SESSION 7: NEW INITIATIVES

This session introduced us to the little and large of new innovations in the world of modern mapping.

Making better maps with CloudMade Andy Allan (Technical lead, CloudMade, London)Firstly Andy Allan, demonstrated and explained the rationale behind new innovations which have been developed out of the Open Street Map project. For Andy what began as a ‘hobby’ has developed into an obsession and now into a full-time job. The idea is to develop products from OSM data for use by third party developers. He explained the principle of this and demonstrated one such development. The Style Editor online allows users to make style change decisions to OSM data online, allowing the user to change styles, colours etc.; a remarkable development when you consider it’s being done on the fly.These developments will inevitably increase the capability and usability of OSM data; watch this space for future developments.

ArcGIS9’s cartographic features Paul Hardy (ESRI Europe)Our second speaker, Paul Hardy, gave us an insight into some of the many new features packaged in the new release of that increasingly used tool of the GIS Cartographer ArcGIS version 9.3. The cartographic features hidden in Arc’s many menu driven toolboxes do take a while to get familiar with as many users will be relatively unfamiliar with its terminology. There is no doubt the size

If there were no cartographers . . .

would it make a difference?

New feature of Arc GIS version 9.3

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and functionality of ArcGIS is impressive but in order to achieve output of a one-off cartographically pleasing map product, this is not the tool for most; for more complex cartographic representation from large database interrogation then this is a most useful piece of software. The issue seems to be one of cartographic definition, i.e. cartographer vs GIS operative, an issue which becomes less pressing with each new release of ArcGIS and its ever increasing range of cartographic functionality, bringing the two previously more distant worlds closer together.

Drew Ellis

SESSION 8: DEMONSTRATIONS AND WORKSHOPS

Digital panorama production workshop - Tom Patterson, (Cartographer, US National Parks Service.This workshop followed on from the lecture given by Tom earlier in the week on 2D and 3D trail head maps in US National Parks. It was an opportunity for us to use the same software and attempt to create our own 3D image. Judging by the laughter, it was also a lot of fun!The software programme used was called Natural Scene Designer Pro. The basis of the 3D image was digital elevation data from USGS onto which was draped digital orthophoto imagery – all geo-referenced. From this point you could re-project, zoom in/out, change the elevation, change the orientation, adjust the height of mountains (!)….pretty much whatever you liked until the desired scene was created (hopefully still recognisable!). From here on it was into Photoshop to mess with layers, masks and transparency, and add colour, texture, trees, clouds, roads, etc. I don’t think many of us reached a finished 3D map but it was a very fascinating introduction to the possibilities of this style of mapping.

Helen Stirling

Advice from the expertsThis workshop enabled the 20 participants to hear details of how Mike Shand, Stuart Gill and David Hume use combinations of software such as Adobe Illustrator, Freehand, ArcGIS9, MapInfo and MaPublisher in their work, and then to ask questions. They explained how, for example, Ordnance Survey data can be downloaded from Digimap and used in GIS programmes to create maps. They also gave many helpful tips on ways to manipulate the files. Although the workshop was billed as ‘interactive’, some

Image from panorama workshop

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difficulties with data and programme compatibility limited our hands-on experience. Despite this, it was interesting to hear the debate between the experts and the participants regarding various methods of working, and to realise that there is often more than one way to get a job done. There was much useful discussion in the limited time available.

Claire Ivison

Explore the cartographic capabilities of ArcGIS for map design and production - Paul HardyPaul Hardy’s workshop followed his earlier presentation outlining ArcGIS9’s cartographic features. Paul remarked that when these exciting features were unveiled at a large American conference they were greeted with whoops and hollers from the audience. I have to report that, impressive though they undoubtedly were, at Aberdeen these new cartographic tools were greeted with traditional British reserve. Nevertheless, I for one was motivated to attend the workshop, even as a non-ArcGIS user, although I have been given ArcGIS output to be tidied up in Illustrator. The presentation had outlined Illustrator-style tools that allow the user much more design control over the finished map, which seems to me to be exactly what ArcGIS had previously been lacking. The workshop took the form of a question and answer session where Paul successfully solved several design problems thrown at him by some of the software users in the room, bypassing the need to export to Illustrator to do the same work. It suggested to me that this package is probably the most powerful cartographic tool available, combining data handling power with fully-flexible design capability. In one word: “Awesome”!

Ed Oliver

Mapping with Cloud Made – Andy AllanThe workshop was really more a chance to explore OpenStreetMap maps and data. Workshop leader Andy Allan was given leave by his small but enthusiastic audience to roam over aspects of the project, and the cycle map output in particular, in any way that he wanted. He skilfully did so, picking up on the workshop participants’ interests as he went. There was a demo of the online systems, including the editor and the various background layers that can be used for mapping purposes, including Yahoo! imagery and geo-rectified out-of-copyright OS New Popular Edition (NPE) maps. The editor (named Potlatch) was written in Flash by SoC member and OSM activist Richard Fairhurst, who also has done much of the work on scanning and geo-rectifying the NPE maps.

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The OS 1” 7th series sheets are now starting to go out-of-copyright and I hope to work on scanning and rectifying the full set of these that I have under the bed at home. We looked around at people’s home locations to compare coverage, and interactively added in an alleyway on the Uni campus that was not already shown – showing both the power of the technology and the usefulness of local knowledge. Andy also explained that the cycle map is just one of map outputs from the OSM data. He also showed the “nonames” map variant that is filtered to show all roads that have no name added. This is really useful for checking data in the field, particularly where folk have traced Yahoo! imagery remotely to get road alignments but not been out and about collecting street names, which may NOT be taken from copyrighted sources. We had to stop when the room was about to be locked, but had all enjoyed a free-ranging discussion of aspects of collaborative mapping. Two participants in particular went away with ideas to pursue. One, from Aberdeen Uni’s Centre for Learning and Teaching, with ideas of using the data in the field, and one with a plan to get out and map his local area, starting with his own parish and hopefully working outwards in what is a fairly sparsely mapped part of England.

Footnote: the day after the workshop, Andy Allan’s work – and it should be noted that the cycle map is an individual project undertaken in his spare time, supported by the mass of cycle data enterers - was recognised by him being honoured with a Commended Award in the Avenza Electronic Mapping category at the BCS awards ceremony.

Steve Chilton

Sample of Andy’s cycle map commended in the BCS Avenza Award for Electronic Mapping

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SESSION 9: KEYNOTE

On Thursday morning newly-elected SoC President Professor Danny Dorling gave a keynote presentation entitled “Mapping from the cradle to the grave”. He started with a literary reference – from Lewis Carroll’s ‘Hunting of the Snark’, and indicated that he was going to talk about going against (carto)graphical conventions. He admitted that he had only two ideas to offer, or should that be 2.0 ideas? After teasing us with some complicated formulae that are used to calculate areas in the Worldmapper cartogram software, he moved on to show how the map detail in these cartograms can look “normal” when zoomed in enough (Aberdeen area) but less so when zoomed out (world view), with the graticule lines emphasising this distortion. As the principle of the Worldmapper cartograms is that the areas are proportional to the data shown these distortions are going to vary from map to map, but have to be recognised and understood.

His second set of illustrations were of death rates in UK due to different causes. These were done on a standard base map whereby the statistical areas used to map the data are adjusted to be of similar-sized populations and then re-jigged to geo-located hexagons. Mortality rates are denoted by colours (none too complicated). Each hexagon (representing a constituency) was split into a pair of neighbourhoods; so each neighbourhood is a half hexagon. To decide which way to split each hexagon the compilers merely used the geographic relation of the centroids (in real geography) of each pair of neighbourhoods because if you split all the hexagons the same way it gets very difficult to follow. A side by side comparison with a traditional choropleth map of the same data showed how this sophisticated analysis can certainly aid the understanding of such complex and emotive issues as causes of death.

Danny then mentioned the upcoming publication of the “Real World Atlas”, containing 366 examples of maps in Worldmapper format, and the enticingly titled (and acknowledged as not Danny’s choice of title!) “The Grim Reaper’s Roadmap” – an atlas of mortality in Britain, which are the latest outputs from the research projects highlighted earlier.He ended by talking of future research on global flow mapping, and asked the delegates to forward ideas, and indeed examples, to contribute to this future work.

Steve Chilton

Danny Dorling - newly elected SoC President

Mortality ratios: all causes (1981-2004)

UK

Scotland

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SESSION 10: ENVIRONMENTAL MAPPING

A century of glacier cartography in Western Canada Roger Wheate (University of Northern British Columbia) Roger spoke of the early mapping challenges before aerial photography through to monitoring the world’s changing glaciers featuring the GLIMS glacier database; Global Land Ice Measurements from Space, ‘Glim’ is an archaic Scottish term for ‘a passing look, a glimpse’.

1850 literally marked a ‘post-glacial’ maximum, the Little Ice Age, and ice volumes subsequently reduced. Glacier levels declined as glacier snouts retreated. The resulting trim lines on mountain sides, as evident in early oblique photography, show the maximum elevation of glaciers and even today natural forestry has difficulty in taking a foothold below this level. Glaciers were mapped on the early photo-topographic mapping of 1890 to 1950 with the production of 21 sheets at 1:40,000. The National Topographic Series one-inch was commenced in 1923 followed by more accurate glacial mapping during the International Hydrological Decade (1965-1975) using ‘Swiss’ techniques of relief representation.

With the advent of the digital era, satellite imagery, Shuttle radar DTM and now LIDAR data techniques, glacial mapping is at the forefront once again. Interestingly, on-site glacial surveying is still necessary with ‘height data’ achieved in some cases by skiing down the centre flow lines of glaciers using GPS. Glacial mapping has revealed British Columbian glaciers are increasing in number (over 12,000) due to fragmentation. On average glacial snouts are retreating 10 metres per annum and volumetric reductions can be analysed from the GLIMS database and repeat DTMs.

Bill Johnson

www.glims.org/

Central coast mountains,Landsat 2006 used to

track glacier movement

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End noise maps for ScotlandDavid Palmer (Technical Director of Noise Mapping, Faber Maunsell)David presented with supreme acoustic clarity on ‘End Noise Maps for Scotland’. Actually, END signifies the acronym for Environmental Noise Directive, a European directive for the assessment and management of environmental noise. The first requirement of END is to determine the noise exposure of the population through noise mapping. This was achieved by June 2007 and the noise maps can be viewed interactively on the website. The mapping shows calculated noise levels for road, rail, aircraft and industry across the Glasgow and Edinburgh agglomerations and the main transportation road and rail links throughout Scotland. All road traffic flow greater than 1,000 vehicles per day and all railways within the agglomerations were acoustically targeted. All major transportation links were sampled with a buffer zone of two kilometres either side. Acoustic soundings were taken at four metres above ground for day, evening and night, and from this data a weighted logarithmic total was evaluated. The precision of mapping was based on a ten metre grid.

With limited time remaining David exponentially increased in decibels and rapidity. Exhaustively, he explained that access to the GIS mapping on the website is achieved by selecting a noise source, noise metric and then by clicking on the appropriate map or by entering a post code to centre on a desired location. A zoom facility allows closer inspection at a larger scale. Local Authorities are required to draw up action plans based on the mapping results,

to reduce levels where necessary, and to preserve environmental noise quality where it is good.

Bill Johnson

www.scottishnoisemapping.org

Example of Noise Mapping David

used to illustrate his talk

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SESSION 11: SPECIAL TOPICS

Tribunal Mapping in New ZealandMax Oulton (Unversity of Waikato)This lecture centred around the Waitangi Tri-bunal, established in 1975 to investigate and make right any claims by tribal groups to a Government that breached promises made in the Treaty of Waitangi, signed in 1840. The Treaty was intended to provide a legal basis for land purchases from the Maori people by the British Government. Max revealed the shockingly poor deal the Maoris were forced into, both in the pittance paid for their land and the way they were moved onto small ar-eas of poor quality land which would not sus-tain their way of life.

Max had been contracted to produce maps of the land areas in question and many university cartographers would be familiar with the type of source material he had to work from - photocopies of 19th century maps, sketch maps, written descriptions and the like. Unfortunately time precluded a detailed description of exactly how these were amalgamated into modern mapping systems, but the finished examples shown were of impressive visual quality. It seems they were also successful in illustrating the Maoris’ case, as 25 million dollars compensation was awarded as a result of the tribunal, along with first refusal on future land purchases and place names being changed back to the original Maori words.

Ed Oliver

Settlers landing in Port Nicholson c. 1852-60

(Alexander Turnbull Library:E-079-005)

Map from Tribunal report of lands around

Wellington, New Zealand

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Supranational cartographic styles in European �:�0,000 topographic mappingAlex Kent (Head, Cartographic Unit, Southampton University) Alex Kent honoured the SoC by giving the first presentation of his Doctoral thesis in the UK, a study entitled ‘Supranational cartographic styles in European 1:50 000 Topographic Mapping’. After giving a brief explanation of why there even exists diversity in styles – national variations in terrain, climate and vegetation among them – he gave us a brief overview of his methodology and aims, which were looking for both quantitative and qualitative results. He talked a bit about the various ways and amounts in which different countries classify the same features: in the UK, for example, the OS 1:50,000 uses seven different categories of road classification, conforming to national norms and covering the breadth of national classification (motorways, trunk, A, B, two classes of minor roads – thick yellow and thin yellow - and finally very minor white roads), whereas some countries used as few as three categories. We were then given a more in-depth view of how Alex had gone through the legends of all the maps and classified the vast range of symbols and features from across Europe (of which there are obviously huge variety) for the purposes of his research, and then arrived at 19 different classes (eg: roads, railway, religious

features, hydrology etc). These 19 classes had then been split into three levels (land cover, general land use and special features) and again between natural/human and artificial/non-landscape features in order to compare the detail and focus of each country’s maps. The commitment shown to decipher, extract and re-classify 2,304 individual symbols from 20 different countries’ maps - and many different languages - was impressive, and naturally, all the while, we were being treated to continuous graphical examples and extracts of maps to help explain the processes. Alex then gave us a brief statistical overview, mentioning amongst much else the fact that Slovenia (210) used almost three times as many symbols as Ireland and the Czech Republic, for example, and that there were generally more human than physical symbols used. Alex then finished up with some brief conclusions, noting that “some national agencies are significantly more articulate than others in cartographic expression of landscape”, that national traditions are diverse with the cartographic language

Map showing the relative symbol counts in European topographic

mapping

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often culturally embedded, and that the legacy of former cartographic styles continues to influence the design of topographic maps today. As both a foreign resident and somebody that has lived in several European countries and travels extensively and frequently across Europe (thus encountering such examples on a weekly - and often even daily – basis), this reviewer found the whole presentation extremely interesting and indeed it answered certain questions he had occasionally idly speculated on, and would like to thank Alex on behalf of SoC for sharing his findings with us in such an excellent presentation.

Rich Perkins From here to Timbuktu: the calligraphic carto-antics of an old cartographer’s take on mapping the history of IslamAndrew M Currie (Cartographic publishing consultant, Creative Viewpoint, Glasgow)Andrew is engaged on the production of The Atlas of Is-lamic History and has been working with Libraire du Liban - a leading academic publisher in the Islamic world, based in Beirut. He had previously worked with these publish-ers on the ‘Comprehensive Atlas of the Arabic World, Islamic World and the Rest of the World’ and ‘al-Atlas al-Sharmel’.

The Atlas of Islamic History had been attempted before, but couldn’t match the challenges of combining Islamic professo-rial thought and theory with cartographic styles and illustration. This project was conceived with western authors and cartog-raphy, which was then ‘Islamicised’ into Arabic - much of the text having to be re-written and re-contextualised at this stage.

Andrew showed the problems of dealing with time and differing Arabic dynasties, which requires differing shading regimes, ar-rows, flowlines, symbology and other illustrative techniques.

A major problem has proved to be the translation of text on the maps. An Arabic team in Cairo started working on this, but mod-ern illustration and layout pack-ages, including Adobe InDesign, proved unsuitable, and in the end the production has been given to

An example of the mapping style used in The Atlas of Islamic

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calligraphers in Beirut who hand-letter the maps.

As the maps illustrate development through time they get more complex, requiring imaginative techniques to retain existing chronologies through time and through the Atlas itself. This is an on-going project, which will have around 50 maps in total when finished. So far, around 20 have been completed.

Graham Allsopp

EXCURSIONS

Shell Oil HeadquartersOur visit to Shell Oil’s impressive headquarters in Aberdeen was divided into two sections; the first part was spent in the Sphere, a Virtual Reality and Visualization Centre, followed by an hour in the Real-time Operations Centre (RTOC).

The Sphere cost £500,000 to set up and is like a small cinema with a curved immersion projection screen where viewers wear 3D goggles to gain the full effect. In other fields, this type of virtual reality is used for car design and military exercises, but in the gas and oil industry, Shell use it for training, sharing information and checking new designs. We were shown stunning colour-coded 3D depictions of depths up to 9,000 feet below the sea bed. They also have programmes which can be used in the design of drilling platforms and to simulate real-time drilling. New recruits can be shown the layout of an oil platform in place of spending a day off-shore (although it would not simulate weather conditions!). The Sphere can also be used to great effect in showing images from Google Earth.

The RTOC is one of four such hubs which Shell operates in different parts of the world. The Aberdeen hub uses satellites to constantly monitor drilling operations in Dutch and Norwegian oil fields. It is staffed by personnel with considerable off-shore experience working the same shift patterns as rig workers. This small area of the main building has a separate power supply, a sound-proof meeting room and is staffed at all times. The job of keeping a check on several wells involves watching a series of graphs on a bank of computer screens and contacting the off-shore workers by email or telephone if anything untoward is noticed.

We also saw the Design Support section which coordinates the work of geologists, engineers, geophysicists and cartographers in

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the planning of well-drilling operations. Many oil field areas have been drilled for a number of years and Shell is now trying to get the remaining reserves which are often more difficult to reach. Improvements in drilling technology are making this achievable.

For a university cartographer it was a fascinating afternoon seeing a few aspects of the work of a large multi-national company.

Claire Ivison

Guided walk around Old AberdeenLeaders: Dr. Chris CrolyChris Croly, Assistant Keeper (Research) and Judith Stones, Keeper (Archaeology). Archaeological Unit, Aberdeen City Council.We assembled outside St Machar’s Cathedral and entered Seaton Park, a 27-hectare estate lying to the north of the city which was 27-hectare estate lying to the north of the city which was purchased by the Council in 1947 from Major Vivian Hay. The first The first stop within Seaton Park was to view the Tilldrone Motte, believed to be a 12th century castle mound and wooden fortification. Archaeological investigation revealed it to be a far older defensive site and a prehistoric burial cairn; now however, it is covered in overgrown shrubbery and trees.

Nearby is Benholm’s Lodge, a fortified townhouse with two round towers and featuring heraldic crests. It also features the carved stone figure of a man in armour, originally carrying a sword, suggested to be William Wallace. In 1965, its original site in the city centre was developed and the building was moved and reconstructed in its present location. Still within Seaton Park, we were shown the site of a

Seaton Park,Old Aberdeen

An example of the stunning 3D

colour-coded depictionsof operations under the

sea

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world war two pillbox, a future ‘historic’ building perhaps. Through the exquisite gardens and beautiful flower bed area you reach theand beautiful flower bed area you reach thethe site of Seaton House. This brick built estate house was given to the City Council by the last laird, Malcolm Vivian Hay, but it burnt to the ground in 1963. Today, an ornate cast iron fountain marks the site. Along the banks of the River Don we were shown the site where a watermill had stood.

Our last stop was on the historic Brig o’Balgownie which is a Scheduled Ancient Monument. Constructed of granite andonstructed of granite and sandstone, its single gothic arch has a span of over 12 metres. The The original bridge was built in the late 13th century and was the main crossing of the River Don leading north. The bridge as it stands today was the result of rebuilding the older bridge in three stages between 1607 and 1611.

Our group continued over the Bridge of Don to do some seal spotting on the shoreline and back along the south side river walk, which afforded a very good view of the Brig o’Balgownie arch. I wish to thank our experts for a very interesting walk. It was a shame that we hadn’t time to include some other interesting aspects of Old Aberdeen: for example, the Powis gates with their unusual Turkish style minarets; King’s College, Scotland’s third University, with its splendid crown tower; Mercat Cross and the Townhouse, which Dr Croly spoke of in his introductory lecture; the historic Chanonry street and the interesting manses that line it; and indeed the historic St Machar’s Cathedral. At least I now have an excuse for a return visit to Old Aberdeen. Stephen Hannon

Kings College Chapel,Old Aberdeen

St Machar’s Cathedral,Old Aberdeen River Don, Old Aberdeen

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Macaulay Institute for Land Use ResearchWe took the short trip to the Macaulay Institute to gain first hand experience of their impressive virtual theatre. David Miller first gave us the background to the Macaulay Institute, an organisation founded in 1930 through T B Macaulay who had a passion to improve the productivity of Scottish agriculture. The Institute inThe Institute in its current form was founded in April 1987 by the merger of the Macaulay Institute for Soil Research and the Hill Farming Research Organisation.

The virtual theatre has been devised as a means of engaging local communities in discussions about the future appearance of our environment, enabling local people to visualise proposed developments more effectively. It consists of a curved screen ontoIt consists of a curved screen onto which is projected terrain modelling via three projectors linked to four computers. The theatre can be transported easily in a large van and erected in about an hour – a major factor if it really is to reach out to local people. Normally the theatre holds a maximum of 15 so our party of 24 may not have enjoyed the full visual impact. The first set of images we saw was developed for Loch Lomond National Park, the second largest National Park in Scotland, which covers a wide variety of terrain. We were shown the extent of the park in general before focusing in on the area around Killin. In this area, with realistic imagery, we could see the effect of, for instance, new woodland or a wind farm within the landscape. We also used the voting handsets, perhaps one of the greatest assets of the virtual theatre. This enables participants to react immediately and anonymously to the changes in the landscape being portrayed, a real benefit in planning situations where often it is the most vocal people whose views are taken on board. Questions were listed on a computer screen and we could respond by pressing a given number on our handset.

This particular package was taken to a variety of public locations around the park over a 20-day period. Nearly 1000 people visited the theatre and were asked questions about their vision for the future of the park. With the voting handset, the public could react immediately to the changes being depicted on the landscape and this valuable information fed straight back to LLNP.

The second example we were shown looked at the Falkland area in Fife and here the issues being raised were focused on new trends in agriculture including the growing of biofuels or the increasingly common use of polythene tunnels to grow crops. On this model

Lighthouse, Aberdeen

www.macaulay.ac.uk/

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individual buildings were given three dimensions to enable better visualisation.

Finally we were taken, visually, to an urban environment where there were planning proposals to make major changes to a city square. We were right down to building level at this point and were able to see the impact of different types of street furniture or changes in use of buildings. The modelling could even transform the square to night-time or a foggy morning to more easily enable the public to imagine the impact of any proposed developments in differing situations.Our visit certainly showed the wide variety of situations to which the virtual theatre could be put and I’m sure made us all realise that cartographic boundaries are yet again being challenged.

Wendy Price

WALLIS AWARD

The 2008 Wallis Award was presented to Pam Baldaro of the Cartographic Unit, University of Southampton, who designed the 3D campus map that formed part of the submitted portfolio. Here, Pam describes her background:

I trained in Art and Design in the 1960s at Weston-super-Mare School of Art and at the West of England College of Art. Later, in the 1980s, I gained a postgraduate diploma in Illustrative Printmaking at Bristol Polytechnic (now the University of the West of England) and have been a cartographic illustrator at the University of Southampton since 2001. My working life has been varied and interesting and has always centred on graphics, cartography, illustration and painting. I think this mix of experience was useful when in 2006 I was asked to produce a 3D campus map for the University of Southampton. I enjoyed designing the map and working out how to produce it with limited resources and time. My colleague Bob Smith co-produced this map and is the senior cartographer for the whole campus and route maps series. In 2008, following a new university branding directive and the appointment of a new Head of Cartographic Unit, all maps have been updated and PDF versions made available online at: www.soton.ac.uk/about/whereissoton/maps/highfield_3d.pdf. For details of how the 3D map was produced, see Baldaro, P. (2007) “Design Matters – Time Matters” Bulletin of the Society of Cartographers 41 (1/2) pp.25–26.

Pam Baldaro

Pam Baldaro receiving the 2008 Wallis Award

from Mike Wood

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ANNUAL DINNER 2008

The East Aberdeen Golf Club provided the setting for our Annual Dinner, followed by a lively traditional Ceilidh dance. Mike Shand performed a magical role as MC for the evening, spiriting proceedings for us in fine style. After a fine meal of Aberdeen Angus Beef (what else?), Prof David Mcdonald welcomed us with his assessment that SoC constituted the “Provisional wing of Cartography”. David closed with a toast to students.

Our legendary committee speeches were opened with our beloved outgoing President, Mike Wood, recounting the four easy steps to planning a successful Summer School:

1. Panic2. Don’t panic3. Panic4. Look for help

And finally find where your true friends are!Mike noted that his 17 years as our President had formed 25% of his life, nearly 40% of his working life and more than 204 months serving us and promoting our ideals. He then rambled on with ever increasing statistics on the chronological breakdown of his time

Pam’s award winning design

The Cartographic Unit at the University of Southampton has

plans to run a series of workshops on 3D map

production.

Steve Chilton presents Mike Wood with his

honourary membership

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in office with obvious affection for every one of the 6,200 or so days of his tenure.

Quietly, he noted that if one took SoC out of his life, he would have had a huge gap in it, and therefore acknowledged with affection the part SoC had played in shaping his life. Self-effacing as ever, Mike thanked the committee and the rest of the organising team with a special vote of thanks to Lawrie McLean, also acknowledging the unwavering support of his wife, Margaret. Reflecting on his many friends past and present, Mike made special mention of the untimely loss of Pam Spoerry, stating that she, like our other colleagues will always be around us in our memories. Mike closed with a toast to the Society.

As Steve Chilton rose to his feet the stopwatch once again recorded the unfailing march of time as the sweepstake dominated his every word. I didn’t record much of the contents of Steve’s speech, for I was too busy laughing and clapping to jot down his musings. The basic theme was to encourage us all to play our part in the cartographic scene, and contribute to the debate on all things cartographic from our privileged vantage point. Another thread running through the speeches this year was what Google name searches can reveal about members of the committee, and their alter egos. Steve closed by presenting Mike with his Honorary Membership certificate to warm applause.

Unexpectedly for Mike, things didn’t end there, for Steve rose to his feet again, this time to present Mike with the Society’s highest honour, The Society Award for services to the Society, in the form of the Scottish Quaich, or friendship cup. A more appropriate embodiment for the award I couldn’t think of. Since its inception, it has only ever been presented on two other occasions, and Mike was visibly touched to receive the award to our vigorous standing ovation.

After a short break for us to reflect on Mike’s contribution to the Society, Max Oulton, from New Zealand, offered his thanks on behalf of our many international guests for a very welcoming and instructive few days, which was appreciated as much by them as we delighted in having the international dimension to our programme.

Despite a marked imbalance in the ratio of men to women, the Ceilidh that followed was enjoyed with gusto. The official part of the evening ended with many happy faces and sore feet. Success!

Mike Wood acknowledges being presented with the

Society Award

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I was honoured to be present at the Annual Dinner and to enjoy a fine evening amongst such respected company. Thank you to the organisers, sponsors and the first rate company for a wonderful evening.

Nick Tasker

ARTICLES AND REVIEWS

UPDATE ON MAPS FOR 2012 OLYMPICS

The latest addition to the London 2012 Olympics website is a series of story maps. According to the site: “Storymaps are a unique way to find out about London 2012. They let you see what’s happening, from building the Olympic Stadium to how we’re getting everyone around the UK involved.” They are a series of tiled map views embedded in Flash that have clickable icons (not particularly attractively designed to fit in with the much maligned event logo) that expand to show a larger scale map overlaid with a popup window with text and photo telling the particular story.

The backstory to the maps, which were produced by San Fransisco based company stamen design, is explained at:-

http://content.stamen.com/london_maps_are_liveThis explains how they went about obtaining up-to-date aerial photography of the Olympic construction site (something that none of Google, Yahoo or Microsoft had) and combining it with digital map data (from Collins Bartholomew according to the copyright link). The link above says “the park is rendered as a more or lessthe park is rendered as a more or less

The Chanonry, a delighful cobbled

lane between Hillhead Halls and St. Mary’s, the venue for the Aberdeen

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up-to-date ‘satellite’ image (they’re actually painstakingly stitched together from pictures taken from an airplane), the rest of the UK is rendered in branded colors, and your eyes tell you where the difference is. And there are a few things - rivers, trainlines etc. - that snake in and out of the park, & stitch the whole thing together.” All this was achieved with the Mapnik software, which many will have seen presented by Artem Pavlenko at the SoC conference last year at Portsmouth, and is also the rendering engine at the heart of the OpenStreetMap project. The combination of photo and map takes some getting used to, but it is an excellent implementation of a zoomable and pannable slippy map site. Zoom out and decide if the sea areas filled with Olympic icon shapes works for you or not!

Steve Chilton

A REVIEW OF FOUR “MAPPING” APPLICATIONS

The following is a lightning review of four data visualisation applica-tions that have recently come to my notice. Where possible I have tried to make comparative comments on: input, styling, output, ease of use and an example produced.If more than one person (ie not just Alex Kent!) emails me to say they would be interested, I am willing to consider expanding some-what on these observations in the forthcoming SoC Bulletin, per-haps with some screenshots of examples.

Instant AtlasThis software (from Geowise Ltd in Edinburgh) was demonstrated

www.london2012.com/storymaps/

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at the recent Aberdeen Summer School. According to the website it “enables information analysts and GIS professionals to create highly-interactive web solutions that combine statistics and GIS data to improve data visualization, enhance communication, and engage people in more informed decision making.”I went to have a go and was faced with a 30 day trial download. That in itself wouldn’t have stopped me, but I am afraid that the statement that the 60mb file would take an estimated 1hr 20mins to download via an ISDN line did. So, no direct experience by this reviewer, but it is clearly pitched to local authorities. Maybe some-one who has used it might like to comment on its value and ease of use in a future Newsletter/Bulletin.

Earth AtlasEarth Atlas is the result of work done by Bjorn Sandvik, and origi-nated in his PhD project at the University of Edinburgh. It is “an example of how KML files can be combined and visualised directly in the web browser”.InputEarth Atlas has some data files already in place, and can include data provided by users in KML format. Examples of data embed-ded include: CO2 emissions and infant mortality (at country level). The neat feature is the ability to combine datasets in the browser. This is achieved by combining the Google Earth API and the Ext JS (Javascript) library. For security reasons, JavaScript is not allowed to do any file access on its own. Earth Atlas has no server side de-pendencies, so KML files are only uploadable through a URL link. This means that if you have your own files they have to be available from a server (rather than be on your local hard-drive). If you have no server space available it is possible to upload KML files to a File Cabinet on Google Sites (http://sites.google.com).StylingThere is no styling on the fly, but advanced users could hack the KML files before uploading. For instance for point data the symbol to use is defined by a URL in the KML file (which can be edited in simple WP app), and could easily be changed to point to a symbol of choice. You can make a choice about the background display between None (ie traditional Google Earth), Earth’s city lights (fine for representing major conurbations at world/country level, but disturbingly out-of-focus if zoomed in), or Natural Earth II (based on Tom Patterson’s shadedrelief.com, and again only really viable at world/country level). You can also turn on/off the Google layers data for: Borders and Names, Roads, Buildings and Terrain.

Website:http://www.instantatlas.com/

Website:http://earthatlas.info/

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OutputThe output is in effect a series of Google Layers; so, the results are fully zoomable and pannable. Some of the data (eg CO2) is mapped as scaled columns, which makes for interesting visualisa-tion if you zoom out to see them in a global view.Ease of UseThe interface was fairly intuitive, but getting a KML file in and working proved a minor challenge. Initially, it required a load of the Google Earth Plugin at setup (even though Google Earth was running on the machine already). I found a KML file from the ex-cellent Geocommons Finder! website (http://finder.geocommons.com/). Tip: Make sure you create an account and login as the de-fault download option for KML puts it in a temporary file and auto-matically opens Google Earth to display it. Then use the strangely named “Edit a Copy” button to download the KML file to the folder of your choice (and then up to a server). The ability to combine datasets and see them in combination could prove very useful.ExampleI downloaded from Finder! a KML file of the “Location of oil re-fineries” (point data) and plotted it against the embedded CO2 emissions (by country) data. Not very sophisticated admittedly, but easily achieved once I had learnt the steps.

GmapCreator The GMapCreator was developed at CASA (UCL’s Centre for Ad-vanced Spatial Analysis). “It is a freeware application designed to make thematic mapping using Google Maps simpler. The applica-tion takes a file containing geographic areas linked with attributes and automatically generates a working Google Maps website from the data. It does this by pre-creating all the necessary files and saving them into a directory. Publishing the map on the web is then just a matter of copying files onto a web server.”InputInput is from either shapefiles (.shp) or comma separated vari-ables (.csv). I tried from shapefiles from the Finder! site but they failed because of the absence of associated projection files (.prj). So I downloaded shapefiles from the OpenStreetMap project and used them (http://www.geofabrik.de/data/download.html).StylingA reasonable amount of styling can be achieved as you proceed. For point data, seven point styles can be chosen from and sized. Line widths and colours can be selected, as can polygon lines and colours.

Website:http://www.casa.ucl.ac.uk/software/gmapcreator.asp

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OutputThe programme automatically creates sets of tiles and a linking HTML page, which it stores in the sub-directory you are working from. For local working you then just browse this HTML page, which has a default (or customisable for experts) style, including CASA logo and legend, etc. If you produce a map that is particu-larly pleasing or potentially useful to others you have the option to upload it to the CASA-hosted MapTube website (http://www.maptube.org/). Being HTML based the resulting map tiles are fully zoomable and pannable. One word of warning; when creating the tiles you can choose the maximum number of zoom levels (from 0-20). If you choose a high number – which you will need to look at large-scale data/map – you can end up creating many thousands of tiles on your hard-drive. Fortunately each tile is very small (1 or 2kb), but the example I created (to level 18) had 964 tiles totalling over 1 MB.Ease of UseDownload of the software is required, but was quick and easy to do. You also have to register, and install Java Advanced Imaging (JAI), which again was easy. Internet Explorer (v7) didn’t always perform well with the resulting HTML files, but hey what is new there (Firefox is thataway).ExampleThe example I created took the OSM shapefiles for my local bor-ough (Enfield) and I mapped the buildings file from this. This pro-duced an overlay of the main buildings in the borough (as long as they have been mapped in OSM!), which nicely augments the underlying Google map, which is notable for being dominated by road features, and to be severely lacking in other detail.

Maker! Maker! is a very recent innovation, brought to you by FortiusOne. It “gives you the power to make stunning interactive maps with your own data, GeoCommons public data or both”. It is closely linked with the aforementioned Finder! tool, and both of which are part of Geocommons.com, which has the slogan Visual Analytics Through Maps.InputThe system expects your input to come from Finder! There is an easy interface in Finder! to upload data files in either .csv, .shp or .kml format (with neat video on creating a geocoded .csv file). The “Open” principle is followed, in that your data once uploaded will appear in the Finder! archive.StylingOne of the nicest things about Maker! is the stepwise help that is

Website:http://maker.geocom-mons.com/

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provided on screen for making styling choices. Neatly laid out pop-ups guide you through decisions about type of map (choropleth, proportional or dot maps), and also colours, linestyles, symbols and importantly class intervals. These are all presented with graph-ical representations of what it will mean if you make that choice. The background can be the usual Google options of: roads, sat-ellite, hybrid and terrain. At one point I read that OpenStreetMap was to be one background but it doesn’t seem to be there at the moment.OutputThe resulting map is a standard Google layer/mashup – zoomable and pannable, with popup layer and legend info. You can save final maps into a My Maps area, and can generate a Permalink from a separate control button that gives a unique reference to the stored map which is shareable.Ease of UseLogin is required, but that is painless. It is browser-based, and as mentioned has possibly the best onscreen help (with choices) system in any mapping software I have seen. It is possible that with most users defaults will be accepted and many maps will look similar. As with MapTube you can see examples of previous good looking maps. There is also an online User Manual and a good “how to” video.ExampleI took two files from Finder! and made a pretty unimaginative combined map in a very short time. First a choropleth layer of the number of Tesco Express locations per London Borough, and then overlaid a separate file of the point locations of the actual Tesco Express outlets.

Steve [email protected]

CARTOGRAPHIC RAMBLINGS

Conversation: [CARTO-SoC] Aberdeenshire in MapsHaving given providers of online mapping in Aberdeenshire a light-hearted mauling in my presentation at the SoC conference, I feel I should redress the balance by mentioning a couple of instances of mapping innovation in Aberdeenshire that have popped up on blogs in the last couple of days.

Firstly, GoogleMapsMania today had a “UK Google Maps Mashup Roundup” that includes the Aberdeen History site from Gazetteer of Scotland. Although I don’t like the interface (and it doesn’t work



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in IE) it does have some quite useful historical stuff. If you like Googlymap stuff have a look.http://googlemapsmania.blogspot.com/

Secondly, DirectionsMag notes that “Aberdeenshire’s mobile mapping tracks developments through GGP’s GIS”. Nothing par-ticularly new here, just the Planning and Environmental Services using GPS and GIS technology, but now using MobileMapper via Bluetooth in the field.http://www.directionsmag.com/press.releases?duty=Show&id=24729

Steve Chilton

Welsh hill upgraded to a mountainA Welsh hill has been upgraded to a mountain after it was discov-ered its official measurement was listed incorrectly on maps.

The Ordnance Survey agreed to reclassify Mynydd Graig Goch after walkers found that their GPSs showed that instead of being 609m, it was actually 609.75m. It is considered that a hill becomes a mountain if it is over 2000 feet (609.6m). Therefore this Welsh hill has reached mountain status threshold by 15cm (six inches)!

Report from BBC website contributed by Jenny Kynaston

Motorways that aren’t Two recent driving incidents have prompted me to write a short piece on the motorways that aren’t. I had occasion to drive from North London to New Radnor in mid-Wales, which is best achieved by taking the A44 cross country – a real throwback to pre-motorway days, especially during one of the fiercest rainstorms I can remember experiencing. This took me past the elusive M96. If you are unaware of it, the M96 is a one mile stretch of motorway completely unconnected to the rest of the motorway network. It isIt is as important as any of the major motorways in the UK, like the M1 or M6. It isn’t open to the public, but is the only motorway that can actually help to save lives in a proactive manner. It’s part of the Fire Service College, which is one of the world’s best training establishments for fire-fighting personnel. At the college, they have many scenarios to help with the training, which includes buildings, aircraft and helicopters, a railway, shipping, and even an oil terminal. The M96 is one of these scenarios - a full-blown motorway in the middle of the college. It is used to simulate road traffic incidents; the college has a supply of vehicles specifically for this purpose. It’s about a mile long, and eight lanes wide [info from Fire Services College].

Summit of Mynydd Graig Goch

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This just served to remind me of another motorway anomaly that I drive past nearly every working day on the way to my new location in Hendon. This a detached part of the M1 towards its southern end. The following information on it is from an OSM mailing posting by “Welshie”. “I rode my bike along it, which is maybe illegal, but maybe not. It’s really there on the ground, and really is a slip-road, just that either end has crash barriers to prevent people from using it. The hedges either side are overgrown, but is apparently still being maintained sufficiently to be put into place as an exit at short notice should the current real junction 2 southbound slip road be out of action for a prolonged period. There are even street lights. Microsoft’s “Bird’s Eye” view on maps.live.com shows a fairly accurate representation of what’s on the ground.”

Note: maps.live.com permalink is far too long to show here, so here is a Google link: http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?hl=en&ie=UTF8&II=��.�0��,-0.2��2&spn=0.00�09�,0.009��&t=k&z=��

Steve Chilton

NEWS

British Cartographic Society AwardsFor the second year in a row a member of the SoC was successful in winning a BCS award.

Stanfords Award for Printed MappingHelen StirlingMoray Health WalksThese were produced as part of a health initiative developed by Moray Council and NHS Grampian. A clear well designed and executed set of maps that are ideal for the target non-map user. The small symbol set uses symbols that are easy to understand and should reduce ‘map phobia’, the choice of colours and the limited colour palette adds to the overall clarity. It was particularly interesting to see that as each walking map stands on its own they can be downloaded individually from the Council website.

Further information on this sort of stuff: Pathetic Motorways: http://pathetic.org.uk

The Society for All British Road Enthusiasts: www.sabre-roads.org.uk/

. . . and if you are really sad, check some of the links at:

http://pathetic.org.uk/siteitems/links.shtml . . . which includes a link to a pathetic railways website!

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The XYZ Digital Map Company LtdScottish Cartographers Work on World’s Largest AtlasScottish map company The XYZ Digital Map Company are proud to welcome the publication this week at the Frankfurt Book Fair of EARTH – The World Atlas. Earth is the largest atlas available and weighs in at over 30kgs, 576 pages, and a £2,000 price tag. Only 3,000 numbered leather bound copies have been produced with the printing plates then destroyed. It has a staggering 610mm x 469mm page size (36” by 18”), with a small number of fold-out pages for special feature images extending the width to nearly 2 metres (6ft).

The first copy of the atlas went on show at the Frankfurt Book Fair, with stock for the UK market expected to arrive in early November. In the first week 26 copies were sold in the UK, with nearly half the total already sold world-wide (including special gold-leaf covered copies for the Middle East).

Millennium House, the Australian based publishers, contracted The XYZ Digital Map Company to undertake the map plates for the Europe section of the atlas. Dr Tim Rideout, a Director, commented: “we are delighted to have worked on such a prestigious project. These were definitely not just the largest format, but also the largest scale and most detailed atlas pages we have ever been asked for”. The book is not just a magnificient record of our time with hundreds of the best available photographs, comprehensive facts and figures on each country, and extensive highly detailed maps, but it is also a collector’s item and an investment for the future (and with a weight that means the delivery couriers need special health and safety clearance to lift it, a rather more solid investment than a bank share!).

We are also pleased that our involvement has not ended with the delivery of the maps as XYZ are acting as one of the UK retailers of the atlas. The first copy was sold by our online shop (shop.xyzmaps.com) a week ago.

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EVENTS

January �9 - 22 2009Joint Symposium of ICA Working Group on Cartography in Early Warning and Crises Management (CEWaCM) and JBGIS Geo-information for Disaster Management (Gi�DM)

Cartography and Geoinformatics for Early Warning and Emergency Management: Towards Better Solutions

Venue : Prague, Czech Republic What is the event about?“Recent large natural and anthropogenic disasters have clearly shown various shortcomings and failures in existing technologies and policies for efficient early warning and emergency response. Many barriers exist in making data available, providing the most appropriate data and making systems co-operate. Most geo-data currently available is designed, stored, and managed by organizations that normally have distinct mandates. Under normal circumstances, these organizations operate largely independent of each other. The presentation of data is adapted to the needs and tasks of particular groups of users. Early warning and emergency management requires different types of systems. The systems have to be user-centered and ensure that every person (professional or citizen) receives the information that will help him/her to avoid losses of life and damages of critical infrastructures.”

November 2� 2008 - January 2� 2009Digital Cities: London’s Future

Venue: The Building Centre, Store Street, London WC1E 7BTWhat is the event about?“Digital Cities looks at how digital technology helps us understand and improve the planning and experience of our city. It will look at the impact on movement in cities: how communication and information technologies enhance a persons experience of place; how people interpret cities with the use of technology; and how mapping influences the design and planning of cities. It will also discuss some of ‘the big brother’ issues such as privacy and security. “For more information:http://www.buildingcentre.co.uk/events/event_diary_details.asp?id=398Watch Play to Invent online: http://www.vimeo.com/923974

Further Information available at the web page for the symposium: http://c4c.geogr.muni.cz

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END NOTE

Phew! This was a marathon edition, however, thanks must go to all the the contributors and especially Claire with her red pen, who had a more onerous task than usual as I was exceptionally busy juggling work and home commitments, squeezing my time management of the newsletter to its limits. Hopefully, the excellent reports from this year’s Summer School will encourage members who have not attended in the past to come next year; although the friendly camaraderie and networking opportunities, not mentioned here, are inevitably an invaluable part of the conference. Readers will notice I have added a section entitled Cartographic Ramblings; please send anything map related - quirky, fascinating and amusing, along with any other contributions to me at:

[email protected] Ed

NEXT EDITION APRIL 2009

Leaving AberdeenshireSeptember 2008


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SOCIETY OF CARTOGRAPHERS

Minutes of 44th Annual General Meeting University of Aberdeen

Tuesday 2nd September 2008

Members present: 28.Apologies: Tim Aspden; Heather Browning; Carson Clark; Huw Dobson and Owen Tucker.Chair Steve Chilton requested any further nominations for Committee posts before opening the meeting.The meeting opened at 8.00pm

�. Chair’s IntroductionSociety Chair Steve Chilton welcomed all to the 44th AGM of The Society of Cartographers Ltd. He thanked local organisers Mike Wood, Lawrie McLean and their colleagues for providing such an excellent and well organised conference. Fellow Committee members were also formally thanked for their support over the year. The Chair encouraged members to become involved in the Society and the help take the Society forward.

2. Minutes of the ��rd AGM held at University of Portsmouth,Tuesday �th September 200� and matters arising.There was no matters arising and the minutes were adopted.Proposed: Brian Rogers Seconded: Rosie Duncan The minutes were duly signed by the Chair, Steve Chilton.

�. Society Reports (full reports presented to AGM and published separately)(a) Hon. Secretary’s Report(b) Hon. Treasurer’s Report(c) Bulletin Editor’s Report (including Newsletter and Bulletin Subscription. Reports) (d) Membership Secretary’s Report

Following the presentation of the Society reports, the Chair Steve Chilton invited comments from the floor.

Commenting on the Reports, Graham Allsopp reiterated how important it is for members to complete the Gift Aid forms that bring tax relief benefits to the Society and can be claimed by the Society retrospectively.

Treasurer Graham Allsopp recommended that Reporting Examiner Gillian Nowell FCA be re-elected for 2008-9, there being no objections the appointment was approved. Proposed: Graham Allsopp Seconded: Tim AbsalomThere were no further comments from the floor on the Society Reports: Chair, Steve Chilton called for acceptance of the Reports en bloc.

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Proposed: Don Williams Seconded: Mike Wood

�. Election of 2008-2009 Committee / Trustees.No new nominations had been received for the following posts; all were willing to stand again for re-election:Chair: Steve Chilton Hon. Secretary: Mike ShandHon. Treasurer: Graham AllsoppMembership Secretary: Heather BrowningBulletin Editor: Alex KentNewsletter Editor: Rosie DuncanBulletin Subscriptions: Tim Absalom Publicity Manager: Brian RogersCommittee Member: Gary HaleyCommittee Member: Jenny Kynaston The above nominees were duly elected en bloc to the Society Committee for 2008-9.Proposed: Wendy Price Seconded: Stuart GillSteve Chilton and Graham Allsopp were re-elected as Society Trustees for a further 3-year period.Proposed: Nick Tasker Seconded: Don Williams �. Society President The AGM was informed that Society President Dr Mike Wood O.B.E. was standing down after 17 years in the post during which he had been a committed supporter and international champion of the Society. The appointment of a new Society President had been discussed in Committee resulting in Professor Danny Dorling of the University of Sheffield being approached as a candidate for the post. Following his acceptance to be nominated and the subsequent endorsement by the Committee and outgoing President Mike Wood, this nomination was put before the members at the AGM. There were no other nominations and Professor Danny Dorling was duly appointed Society President for a 5-year period. Proposed: Steve Chilton Seconded: Graham Allsopp Society Chair Steve Chilton added that Danny Dorling would be attending the Annual Dinner and the second half of the Summer School and that suitable comments relating to the outgoing and new President will be made at the Annual Dinner.

�. Any other business duly notifiedChair Steve Chilton proposed that outgoing President Mike Wood be granted Honorary Membership status for his long-standing commitment to the Society. All present were in favour of the proposal.Proposed: Steve Chilton Seconded: Mike Shand

A discussion took place relating to future Summer School venues (Reading 2009; Manchester 2010; and Plymouth 2011) and possible future joint events with the British Cartographic Society. It was commented that the proposed shortened Summer School for 2009, although not desirable, may be the only option available. Suggestions were made to consider hosting joint, concurrent and geographically close annual events with the BCS; continuing the practice of holding workshops outwith the Summer School; and incorporating practical sessions such as a ‘map critique’ to the

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Summer School programme, possibly as an evening event.

There being no other business, Chair Steve Chilton thanked those present for their contributions and closed the meeting at 8.47 pm.

Mike Shand (Hon. Secretary)

Honorary Secretary’s Report 200�-08Presented to the ��th Annual General Meeting

University of Aberdeen

Tuesday 2nd September, 2008The past year began with the Annual Summer School held at the University of Portsmouth. Thanks go to Bill Johnson and David Sherren and their colleagues for providing delegates with another very successful Summer School.

The 2006-7 Wallis Award for ‘excellence in cartography’ was awarded to Helen Stirling for her “City of Inverness Street Map”. Two Committee meetings were held during the year at the University of Aberdeen and one at the University of Reading. Four Summer School Bursaries were awarded in 2008.

Thanks go to Society member Stuart Gill of the University of Coventry for conducting and organising another very successful and well attended SoC supported Adobe Illustrator / Freehand Workshop in June.Finally, offers would be most welcome for hosts for the 2009 Summer School and for future years. M.C. Shand (Honorary Secretary)

Honorary Treasurer’s Report 2008

I am in the unusual position of presenting two Financial Reports this year. As you will recall, the Society started trading as a limited company from 19 September 2006. To align the Limited Company with Corporation Tax year ends, our financial year end was moved to 31 March, and consequently I am presenting reports covering the periods 19 September 2006 - 30 September 2007, and 1 October 2007 - 31 March 2008. Future Financial Reports will be dated 1 April - 31 March. The Financial Reports differ from previous years’ formats due to the reporting requirements of Companies House.

As usual, the accounts have been prepared by independent examiner Gillian Nowell.

The Reports show a loss of £485 to 30 September 2007 and a profit of £61 to 31 March 2008. In addition to the change of financial accounting periods, the Society has also changed membership years (now starting 1 January from 2008). This makes it very hard to report any other meaningful figures for these Financial Reports. May I suggest that members study both Financial Reports and then question the Treasurer directly. Projections for the 12 months to 31 March 2009 estimate another small loss to the Society.

Can I remind all members that the Society’s main bank account is with CAF (Charities Aid Foundation)

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Bank, which offers far more beneficial banking terms for charities, and all subscription payments should be made into the CAF Bank account, and that Gift Aid forms are available to enable the Society to claim Gift Aid on subscription payments. All UK taxpayers should fill out a Gift Aid form, enabling the Society to reclaim a further 22% of subscription monies.

Finally, can I pay my traditional note of thanks to Membership Secretary Heather Browning and Bulletin Subscriptions Manager Tim Absalom for all their hard work. As usual, I would urge members to pay subscriptions by Standing Order, which makes administration, and particularly reclaiming Gift Aid, a lot easier.

Bulletin Subscription Manager’s Report

Volume ��Volume 41 of the Bulletin was printed and despatched to members and subscribing organisations in March 2008.

Volume �2The current situation is as follows:99 potential subscriptions to Volume 42 (104 copies of the Bulletin)

• 22 from the UK• 77 from overseas

Invoices were sent out in April of this year, the current situation is as follows:• 56 paid• 39 outstanding• 4 complimentary

A follow-up invoice for non-payers will be despatched in September, which will include a reminder letter for those with outstanding Volume 41 subscriptions.

At the last AGM I promised to send out a letter to cancelled subscribers in an attempt to determine the causative factors behind cancellations. This has unfortunately not yet been actioned, but I will try to do so before the next AGM.

soc newsletter november 2008 newsletter€¦ · 10/11/2015 · visiting my son who is at seville...

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